


Pendragon's paralegal

by yogini



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Daydreaming, Dirty Thoughts, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Jealousy, Lawfirm, Lawyers, Love, M/M, Making Out, Male Homosexuality, Mutual Pining, Pining, Sexual Content, Sexual Fantasy, Sexual Tension, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2015-02-08
Packaged: 2018-02-17 06:35:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2299952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yogini/pseuds/yogini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin Emrys works as a paralegal. Arthur Pendragon is one of the lawyers at the firm and also his boss. They don’t always see eye to eye or, truth to be told, they hardly ever agree but as they work together a friendship of sorts starts to take form.</p>
<p>And maybe, just maybe, it will turn into something more than that…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Clerking for a clotpole

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur is Merlin’s boss, and a clotpole at that according to Merlin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

“Get me coffee, Merlin” Arthur ordered. He never asked Merlin to do anything. Never. He ordered. And Merlin obeyed. Because Arthur was his boss and he had to stay on Arthur’s good side if he ever wanted to find work in the city again. In fact, being blacklisted at Pendragon & Pendragon meant that you might as well be blacklisted in the whole country, if not the rest of whole world. Merlin didn’t really fancy having to move to another solar system to be able to work at a legal firm again, and so he tried to keep Arthur happy. But it was damn hard at times. 

He was grateful for his job at Pendragon & Pendragon, he really was, but it was just that he’d never thought that it would be as a paralegal. 

He’d always wanted to be a barrister. That’s what he’d told his mum growing up, that he wanted to help people fight against big companies and unfair governments. That he wanted to be like a superhero, but in a suit. He followed the reports on big cases that were on the news. He watched every TV series about lawyers that he could get his hands on and Hunith smiled and told him that of course he would become a lawyer and help lots of people. He worked harder than ever in school to get his grades up. He watched and re-watched Two weeks’ notice despite the fact that Will teased him and called it a girls’ movie and he got back at Will by rescuing his sister when she was falsely accused for shoplifting. Will never teased him again, but he still refused to watch Suits on Saturday evenings. He did however help proofread the essay that Merlin sent with his university application. When he got his acceptance letter, Hunith was so proud of him that she cried. Well, partly because she was proud and partly because that would mean that he’d have to move away from home, Merlin thought. But she’d been so supportive and encouraging and even taken extra shifts at work to be able to buy him a brand new laptop for his coursework. She’d so much wanted for him to succeed. 

And now he’d failed her. Because Merlin Emrys, law school student was now Merlin Emrys, law school dropout. And Hunith was dead.

And he was not working at the prestigious law firm Pendragon & Pendragon as one of the barristers, but as the paralegal to the owner’s son, Arthur Pendragon. He’d hoped that he could work for a while and get back on his feet and then, if he made a good impression, he could hopefully be allowed to do more and more legal work, maybe even go back to law school, finish his courses and graduate and then come back to work as a barrister. He’d started out full of enthusiasm and had been eager to show his new boss and colleagues that he did good work. 

He got on really well with his colleagues, both the other paralegals and secretaries but also the other lawyers working there. He made friends easily and was soon brought along when the rest went out for lunch or met up at a pub after work, and they seemed to appreciate his company as well as the work he did. His new boss however, wasn’t easily pleased. He seemed to find fault with everything that Merlin did and had made it quite clear that he didn’t think too highly of his new employee. Arthur treated him not as his paralegal or even his personal assistant but as his personal slave. Merlin absolutely hated it. But it was his job. And he could not afford to lose it. 

So besides going all across town to pick up copies of contracts, spending endless evenings in the library looking through dusty old court records, hauling heavy boxes of files from the archive to his boss’ desk only to return them again the next day and proofreading briefs, he also got Arthur his coffee, (black with two sugars), he answered his phone in the middle of the night when Arthur forgot his password, he arranged for Arthur’s dry clean to be sent to his apartment and he made dinner reservations at a minutes notice and he gritted his teeth and held his tongue when Arthur called him an idiot and a clumsy catastrophe. 

Because it was his job. And he could not afford to lose it. Not even if his boss was a complete and utter clotpole.


	2. Dealing with a dollophead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dangers of talking back to the wrong person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

“Bored out of my bloody mind!” 

Merlin wanted to scream it out. But he couldn’t, his boss was in the room right next to him and since Arthur unfortunately had very good hearing when Merlin complained he couldn’t even say it out loud either. Instead he had to settle for writing it on his notepad over and over again instead, sighing heavily while he did so. It wasn’t at all as satisfactory as yelling at the top of your lungs. 

This was the epitome of boredom, the very situation that brought a whole new meaning to the word tedious. It was past eight o’clock in the evening and he was still at the office. It was a beautiful evening and he could see the park from his window, filled with people taking a stroll or enjoying a picnic together. He looked back at the wobbling stacks of papers on his desk, and the dry, ridiculously expensive and not very tasty sandwich that was his sad excuse for dinner and sighed again. Refusing the impulse to sweep everything onto the floor in a giant heap and storm out of the office, he lowered his head to the desk, rested his forehead on his arms and closed his eyes. If he was going to get through the evening he needed a quick break first. 

“Merlin!” The sharp voice startled him and he jumped in his chair. He looked up to see his boss standing beside his desk, arms crossed over his chest.  
“Sleeping at work?” Arthur asked, his tone of voice clearly indicating that he was none too pleased with finding the paralegal slacking at work.   
“No, I was just… resting my eyes….” Merlin’s voice faded, realizing that what he just said was probably the worst excuse ever. It was clear that his boss didn’t believe him as Arthur just rolled his eyes.  
“Resting your eyes? Tired are we, Merlin?” Arthur mocked. Merlin wanted to answer that yes, in fact, he was very tired since he’d been working overtime for the past two weeks to finish preparing for their important case but he knew that wouldn’t go down well. He also wanted to say that this was frankly the most boring task he’d ever been assigned and that one of the secretaries easily could have done it in half the time. The only reason why he was stuck with it was because his boss was a jerk that wanted to teach him a lesson for speaking back to one of the senior associates.

The man had made a crude comment about homosexuals and Merlin had reacted with calling him a narrow-minded bigot. The man had gone completely mad and, while shouting profanities on the top of his voice, demanded an excuse and Merlin’s immediate dismissal due to his sexuality. Merlin had held his own and gave back as good as he got and it had even gone to the point where their head of security, Percival, had to intervene physically to keep the two of them apart. 

Arthur hadn’t backed him up at all, in fact he’d both apologized himself and forced Merlin to do the same. Then he’d dragged Merlin back to his desk, dumped this ridiculous assignment on him and in a dangerous whisper assured Merlin that if anything like that ever happened again he was going to find himself not only fired but also dead. That had made Merlin shout at Arthur instead. He couldn’t understand why Arthur allowed that man to say such things, it was discrimination because of sexual orientation and in a law firm at all places it couldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that it was illegal to fire someone because of their sexuality.

Merlin knew that Arthur himself was both gay and out, even if he didn’t make a big deal about it, and he didn’t understand how anyone could stand being belittled like that. After growing up in a small village which did not whole-heartedly accept people who were being different, Merlin had more than his fair share of name-calling but it went as far as physical violence before he decided that enough was enough and started taking karate classes. It was not something that he bragged about but he’d managed to obtain a black belt and he’d sworn to himself that he’d n ever let anyone bully him again. Because of that, it was hard for him to understand and accept Arthur’s willingness to just take whatever obscenities the man screamed at him and he’d snapped when Arthur told him to shut up and get back to work.

“You complete and utter dollophead!” Merlin had spat out.  
“That’s not a word, Merlin” his boss had hissed back at him.   
“It’s idiomatic” Merlin had retorted.   
“Idio-what?” Arthur had asked as if he’d never heard such a ridiculous thing ever.   
“Idiomatic.”   
“Idiotic, I’d say” Arthur had muttered. “Get to work” he ordered and with that he’d stomped into his office and slammed the door behind him. 

So that was the reason he was still stuck in the office and everyone else where enjoying themselves. The reason his boss was still stuck in the office was because he was a workaholic and a jerk, Merlin thought glumly. He usually worked late when busy with an important case, and expected Merlin to do the same, but Merlin knew that Arthur didn’t have too much to do at the moment and the only reason that Merlin could think of that would make Arthur stay late today was that he wanted to make sure that Merlin did was he was told. 

Stupid dollophead.


	3. Forming of a friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A tentative friendship of sorts starts to form…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

When Merlin had finally finished he couldn’t get out of the office fast enough. He tugged on his coat and slung his messenger bag over his shoulder, nearly knocking over the vase of flowers that Gwen had put on the small table beside the elevator. As soon as he exited the building he started walking briskly towards the nearest metro station. Before he’d gotten more than half a block down the road however, someone called his name.

“Merlin!” Merlin winced when he recognized Arthur’s voice.   
“Yes?” he answered, turning around to see his boss standing beside his car.   
“Come on, Merlin, I’ll drive you home.”  
“That’s not necessary, thank you” Merlin answered stiffly and continued to walk. “I’ll just take the metro.”  
“Don’t argue, I’ll drive you.”  
“I’ll catch the tube, it’ll be fine, thank you very much” Merlin said stubbornly.  
“Just get in the bloody car, will you?” Arthur snapped and Merlin angrily yanked the door open.  
“Right.” He slammed the door shut and put on his seatbelt. “But I’ll not have you raising your eyebrows over my address” he snapped.   
“I already know where you live, Merlin.”  
“What are you, some kind of stalker?” Merlin asked surprised and Arthur rolled his eyes at the question.   
“No, I read it in your résumé.”  
“Oh.” Merlin leaned back. Before long, the humming of the engine and the movement of the car lulled him into sleep and he didn’t wake up until he realized that Arthur had pulled up in front of his house and pointedly coughed to wake him up. Merlin yawned, picked up his bag and then hesitated before getting out of the car. Feeling a bit shy all of a sudden he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t exactly hang out with his boss outside work and while he’d gotten to know Arthur quite well since they had worked long hours together, he didn’t really know that much about him privately. He supposed that he should thank Arthur for driving him home, but it wasn’t really as if he’d been given a choice, Arthur had practically forced him to accept. Then Arthur started talking and saved him from coming up with something to say.

“Merlin, before you go…” Arthur hesitated slightly. “I just wanted to say that I don’t share that man’s opinions. At all. It’s just that Agraviane is not only any senior associate, he’s an old friend of my father and… ” He gestured vaguely and his voice died away. Merlin had something angry at the tip of his tongue but reined himself in and just nodded instead. This was not the time or the place and he suspected that Arthur had a hard enough time being homosexual with Uther as a father without Merlin giving him passionate speeches about gay rights on top of that.  
“Thanks for driving me” he simply said.  
“I couldn’t very well let you take the tube at this time of night” Arthur answered and Merlin started to think that maybe his boss was human after all. That thought was quickly discarded as Arthur continued: “You’d probably have walked in your sleep and fallen down the stairs or something like that.” Merlin got out of the car and shouldered his bag.  
“Good night, Arthur.” He didn’t look back and therefore he didn’t notice that Arthur stayed until he’d gotten safely into the building before driving off.


	4. Insufferable irresistible idiot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin may be an insufferable idiot, but Arthur discovers that there is something irresistible about him…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

“Really, Merlin?” Arthur scoffed disdainfully. Merlin just looked back at him, it was six in the morning for goodness’ sake and so what if he was answering the door in his sleeping clothes? Only his boss would ever expect someone to be presentable at this time of the day anyway. “I was hoping that you would look at least somewhat presentable.”  
“Oh, I’m sorry” Merlin answered, voice dripping with irony. “If I’d known that I was expecting visitors at this hour I obviously would’ve made more of an effort and put on my fancy slippers.” Arthur ignored the snarky comment and pushed past him into the small hallway.   
“I’ve had an urgent call from a client, we’re going to see her now.” Merlin blinked surprisedly, what kind of a client called in the middle of the night? And more importantly, what kind of a client called in the middle of the night and actually got Arthur Pendragon to hurry off to see her?  
“Well, get ready then” Arthur ordered, gesturing impatiently, when Merlin didn’t move right away and that made Merlin huff with annoyance, turn on his heel and stomp out of the hallway. 

When he entered his bedroom and caught a look of himself in the mirror he realized why Arthur had looked so condescending when the door was opened. He was wearing a pair of grey sweat pants that should have been thrown out a long time ago and his pink t-shirt from the LGBT persons’ rights society at university. The slogan Make Law Not War was printed in the colours of the rainbow across the chest. He scowled, of course Arthur would dislike something like that. 

He could hear Arthur pacing impatiently in the hallway so he jumped into his pants and grabbed a shirt and tie to put on along the way. Then he got hold of his bag, threw down a comb and a couple of breath mints and swung it onto his shoulder.  
“Really Merlin, does it take an hour for you to…?” Arthur huffed impatiently but then his breath hitched momentarily as Merlin emerged from the bedroom, shirt unbuttoned and tie carelessly thrown around his neck. Arthur felt that what little ability he had to form coherent speech at this time of the day vanished completely when he took in Merlin’s lithe, toned upper body. He wondered what it would feel like to run his hands all over the pale chest, going lower and lower, slowly all the way down to…

“Are you coming or what?” Merlin’s question interrupted him and he quickly snapped out of that thought when he realized that Merlin had somehow gotten both his clothes and his shoes on and now waited at the door, pulling on his jacket.   
“You’re the one claiming we’re in a hurry after all” Merlin continued, raising an eyebrow and Arthur pushed past him, scowling and desperately trying to think of something else than dragging the paralegal back into the bedroom and make him take off all the clothes that he’d just put on. 

They’d been in the car for over two hours and finally Merlin felt awake enough to make conversation, especially after they’d made a quick stop for coffee. The caffeine had hit his system quickly and, together with the chocolate chip cookie that Arthur had wrinkled his nose at (“Really, Merlin, how old are you?”), made his head so much clearer.   
“So what’s this about then?”  
“An old family friend contacted my father” Arthur explained stiffly. “His daughter’s in trouble and we’re to help her.” He threw Merlin a pointed look. “Confidentially, if you by any chance would happen to know the meaning of that word.” Merlin chose to ignore the comment. How was he supposed to know that Arthur didn’t want his cleaning lady to know what kind of boxers he wore? And if he didn’t want her to know, shouldn’t he have told Merlin not to pack the overnight bag while she was still in the apartment? Did Arthur Pratdragon think that he was some kind of mind reader? Still, Merlin knew that any attempt to bring this up would likely make his boss already bad mood even worse and since he found Arthur barely tolerable on a good day, he choose not to push it and looked out of the window in silence instead. 

It wasn’t long, however, before his curiosity got the better of him.  
“So who is she?” Merlin asked trying to sound casual and immediately he could see that Arthur’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the steering wheel tighter.  
“Her name’s Vivian and she’s an actress and this case requires complete discretion, do you understand me?”  
“The Vivian?” Merlin asked excited, deciding to ignore this comment as well, it wasn’t his fault that his boss couldn’t appreciate that he’d joked with the postman, saying that Arthur was eagerly awaiting the next issue of QX Magazine. Arthur nodded and Merlin gave a very unmanly squeal.  
“The super famous actress Vivian from Night has fallen and Stay with me?” She was one of the most popular and sought after young actresses and her face adorned millions of magazine covers around the world, not to mention all the posters and fan sites. She’d recently gotten married to a famous football player and the couple were regularly seen in the gossip magazines. To miss her, you’d have had to live under a rock for the past decade and Merlin bounced happily in his seat when he realized that he’d actually get to meet her in person. One of his neighbours was a hard core fan and he’d already decided to try and get an autograph for her, as a way to apologize for almost killing her plants when she went on vacation for a week and left him in charge of them. Merlin was desperate to get back in her good graces because she made the best cookies he’d ever tasted and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to ensure that he would never again be without them, no matter of how many plants he killed. He grinned at the thought. 

“Yes, Merlin, that’s her.” As pleased with the situation as Merlin was, Arthur was clearly equally displeased, if not worse, and Merlin couldn’t figure out why. It couldn’t be just the early morning, Arthur was normally not the first person to arrive to the office but he always did what he had to and if that meant getting up early he would, albeit grudgingly. Merlin also doubted that it was the extra work that put the scowl on his face, Arthur was a hard worker, even a workaholic some people might say, and he was used to putting his work before anything else. The fact that the client was really famous wouldn’t normally put him off either, Pendragon & Pendragon represented a lot of famous persons and Arthur was used to his cases being thoroughly covered by media. It must be something else.   
“Don’t you like her?” he dared to ask and Arthur’s scowl deepened.   
“She’s a client” he answered in a clipped tone of voice. “My personal opinion of her hardly matters.”  
“So you don’t like her” Merlin said matter-of-factly.  
“Shut up, Merlin!” Arthur snarled and Merlin huffed, crossed his arms and glared out of the window again. The rest of the journey was spent in silence. 

At last, Arthur pulled up in front of an expensive-looking apartment complex and turned off the engine. When he didn’t move to get out of the car, Merlin paused and looked at him expectantly.   
“Aren’t you coming?”   
“Yes I am” Arthur sighed but instead of getting out of the car he closed his eyes for a moment and looked like he wanted to bang his forehead against the steering wheel. He looked very much like a man about to walk towards his own execution and Merlin just couldn’t figure out why.  
“Listen, I’m sorry I yelled at you before. It’s just…“ Arthur’s voice died away and he squared his shoulders before starting again. ““It’s just that my father keeps trying to set me up with different women and she is one of them.” He jumped out of the car and slammed the door shut, then added: “And. I. Just Can’t. Stand. Her.” Every word was accompanied by Arthur punching the roof of the car, looking furious. Merlin couldn’t stop himself.   
“Your father knows that you’re gay right?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.   
“Of course he does, Merlin” Arthur snapped and Merlin threw his hands up.  
“Hey, no need to be angry at me” he retorted and Arthur made a visible effort to reign in his temper.  
“My father knows, but he’s not happy about it and he’s told me to play it down. He sees this as some sort of phase that will go away as soon as I find myself a nice girl to settle down with.” Merlin looked at him wide-eyed with empathy, but also a small hint of pity of him having to hide his sexuality, and that made Arthur snap.  
“Not everyone wants to prance around in the pride parade wearing pink t-shirts, Merlin” he snarled and motioned for him to start walking. Merlin practically bolted, furious, and as Arthur followed him inside the apartment complex he found that he suddenly whished that his idiot paralegal would have been a girl instead. That would have been so much easier. 

Then Arthur wouldn’t have to wonder what it would be like to kiss those soft lips, he’d know how they felt and he’d know what kinds of noises Merlin would make when he got excited. He’d now what spots to kiss to drive Merlin crazy and he’d finally get to run his hands through that unruly, dark hair, he would grab it and pull Merlin’s head to the side to expose that long pale neck, untie the stupid scarf that Merlin insisted on wearing and kiss and nip all his way…

“Arthur!” He was once again ripped from the thoughts that he shouldn’t be thinking and noticed that Merlin was holding the elevator for him. He quickly walked across the lobby and got in. When Merlin leaned in to press the button his breath ghosted over Arthur’s cheek and suddenly he wondered what it would feel like to press Merlin up against the elevator wall, body to body, full contact from their thighs all the way up to their shoulders, how he’d… 

No, he couldn’t go there. Not now, not ever. So Arthur stopped himself right there, firmly pushed the thoughts away and looked at the floor the rest of the way up to the tenth floor. He didn’t realize that Merlin looked at him with a contemplative look on his face.


	5. Pining for a prat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Absence is said to make the heart grow fonder… But does it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

Over the next few weeks Arthur made sure that he had as little as possible to do with Merlin. Whenever the paralegal was around he couldn’t concentrate, he kept forgetting things and he’d even fallen asleep on an important meeting. This had caused his father to seriously question his ability to handle the case and promptly assigned it to Morgana who sauntered out with a victorious smile while Arthur received a lecture from his father on the virtues of hard work and dedication. Arthur gritted his teeth and just endured it since he couldn’t very well tell his father that his lack of sleep was not a result of excessive partying but because he’d been trying to put the thoughts of shagging Merlin senseless out of his head by watching porn until the early hours of the morning. 

When his boss, who normally supervised his every move, all of a sudden seemed to have almost disappeared, Merlin was confused. When Arthur, instead of talking to Merlin when he wanted something done, sent an e-mail instead despite the fact that he was sitting in the room next door Merlin started to suspect that something was really wrong and he couldn’t figure out what. He knew they’d not been off to the best of starts but he’d thought that they’d gotten past that and as time had passed on they’d become not necessarily friends but at least acquaintances. And he’d seen some of the looks that Arthur gave him when he thought that Merlin didn’t see him, and he could’ve sworn that Arthur seemed at least a little bit interested. It had surprised Merlin at first since Arthur wasn’t really the type to start flirting with a co-worker, especially with his father at the office, but then he’d started to look at his boss in a different light. Not only was he Arthur Pendragon, prat of a boss and a clotpole of a colleague, but he was also a seriously hot guy. Once that thought had entered Merlin’s mind it had stubbornly stayed there, and made it impossible for Merlin to ignore the way Arthur’s shirt snugly hugged his muscular chest and arms or how good his blonde hair looked when Arthur had ran his hands through it and ruffled it. Merlin had dreamt of how that hair would look in the morning, how it would feel to run his hands through it and smooth it out before going to work, a quick kiss in the kitchen over a cup of freshly brewed coffee... 

And since Arthur seemed interested, what was the harm in a little flirting?

Merlin had been careful and discreet, both for Arthur’s sake and his own. After all he could still have been reading the situation wrong and he wasn’t about to make a fool of himself in front of his boss, and he most certainly didn’t want to get any of them in trouble with Uther. But he still made a few careful moves to signal to Arthur that if he was interested, then Merlin wasn’t about to say no. All it took was a standing a little closer than strictly necessary in the elevator, putting his hand on Arthur’s shoulder while leaning over his desk and accidently brushing their fingers together when he handed Arthur his mail and after that Arthur seemed to have gotten the message, and he reacted by avoiding Merlin at all cost. 

Merlin couldn’t find any other reason that Arthur hadn’t appreciated it and decided that he would never misjudge a situation like that again. Clearly Arthur wasn’t interested and from now on their relationship would be strictly business related. So he tried to put all thoughts of Arthur out of his head and focused solely on his work, and Arthur seemed to be doing the same. He spent most of his time in front of his computer or on meetings and Merlin buried himself beneath a mountain of files and only surfaced when it was time for coffee. This worked out just fine for some time.

“Merlin! My office now!” Arthur barked out as he swept by and Merlin’s head snapped up and he quickly scrambled to his feet. Then he came to his senses and forced himself to walk deliberately slowly into Arthur’s office, after all, it was nothing special about Arthur suddenly wanting to talk to him. Just a boss wanting a word with his employee, nothing more than that. But he could feel the blush warming his cheeks as he stopped before Arthur’s desk and mentally scolded himself for acting like a teenager. 

”You’ll be working with Gwaine” Arthur said without preamble and Merlin’s stomach made an unpleasant somersault. What was going on? Was Arthur firing him? He opened his mouth to protest but before he had the time to say anything Arthur continued.  
“He’s got a big case and you have more experience with land law than Elena.” Merlin let out a breath he didn’t even know that he’d been holding. If it was only a short term swap, why couldn’t the prat just tell him that instead of scaring him into believing that he was fired or something?  
“Gwaine’s going to need the extra help, and I can handle Vivian’s divorce with help from Elena” Arthur continued explaining and Merlin relaxed. This was going to be great, Gwaine was fun to work with and he’d get some distance to Arthur while he got over the embarrassment of hitting on his apparently not very interested boss. 

Arthur hadn’t looked away from his computer screen for the whole time that he’d spoken and when he’d finished Merlin stood uncertainly, shifting his weight from foot to foot, waiting to see if he was dismissed or if Arthur wanted something else.   
“Well, go on then.” Arthur gestured impatiently and made it clear that the conversation was over and Merlin did his best not to stomp out of the office. Seriously, how rude could a guy be? But it certainly was helpful to remind himself of these little episodes whenever he started daydreaming of Arthur grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him in for a hot, desperate kiss. A quick walk down memory lane of Arthur’s latest comments and “jokes” usually cooled Merlin down in a situation like that.  
“And Merlin?” Arthur’s voice stopped him on the way out and he poked his head around the door frame to see what his boss wanted.  
“Yes?”   
“Don’t embarrass me.”   
“Of course not” Merlin said with all the sincerity that he could muster but he couldn’t resist adding a “pompous prat” under his breath.   
“I heard that Merlin.”

As the week went on Arthur tried to tell himself that he only missed Merlin because having Elena for an assistant had proved disastrous. She spilled coffee all over the place, she’d forgotten some really important case files on the bus, and she’d come to work wearing her shirt inside out. Twice. 

By the end of the week Arthur was prepared to do anything to get Merlin back, and it wasn’t’ just because he was tired of wading through a puddle of coffee every morning.   
He missed Merlin’s appalling sense of humour and his snarky comments, even missed his clumsiness, and every time he saw Merlin laughing at something Gwaine said he felt like killing the other lawyer.


	6. Running away from romance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both Arthur and Merlin are busy denying their feelings for each other and then Gwaine decides to get involved…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

Merlin heard someone clearing their throat and looked up at the visitor standing in front of the desk that had been temporarily placed in Gwaine’s office. It was a bit cramped but it allowed them to work efficiently together and Gwaine didn’t seem to mind too much. He and Merlin got along well and they talked a lot when they worked.

He was surprised to see that it was Arthur standing there, awkwardly shuffling his feet and holding two take away-cups.   
“I bought this” Arthur blurted out and Merlin couldn’t help but smile at the display of total discomfort in front of him, at the same time as he wondered why Arthur told him this and how to respond. He figured joking about it would be the safest option.   
“Good for you” he said encouragingly. “A top lawyer like yourself couldn’t very well be caught stealing, could you?” he continued smirking and a small blush crept up on Arthur’s cheeks.   
“I bought it for you” Arthur clarified and Merlin did feel a little bit bad for embarrassing the man.   
“Idiot” Arthur added for good measure and Merlin didn’t feel guilty at all anymore.   
”Thank you, you prat” he said but with a smile that took the edge off the insult. He eagerly accepted the cup and wrapped his hands around it immediately. The mornings were getting colder, and since he’d forgotten his gloves on the metro on his way home the other day, the extra warmth was very welcome. He was a bit surprised to notice that Arthur’s eyes lingered a moment too long on his lips when he lifted the cup to take a sip. The whole exchange caused some heads to curiously turn in their direction and Arthur tensed when he noticed.  
“Well, don’t expect this to happen too regularly Merlin. It was ex gratia, if you even know what that means.”   
“Without prejudice” Merlin answered automatically and Arthur looked at him with a surprised frown.  
“What?” Merlin scowled back at him. “Of course I know what that means, just because I work as a paralegal doesn’t mean that I’m stupid.”   
“I never thought, just because of…” Arthur stuttered under Merlin’s firm gaze. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter” he shrugged and Merlin was left staring at his retreating back as he went to his office and closed the door. How could someone be so nice and such a prat at the same time? He took another sip and realized that it was his favourite coffee, with just the right touch of cinnamon. How could Arthur have known what he liked? 

When Gwaine came to the office later Merlin asked him if he’d told Arthur but he hadn’t. In fact, Gwaine laughed out loud at the question and shook his head.   
“Seriously Merlin, it’s Arthur we’re talking about here. By the way, did you find a copy of that lease that I needed?” But when Merlin had passed him the papers and was looking at the computer screen again the smile on Gwaine’s face disappeared and was replaced by a contemplative look as the considered the paralegal. He was a bit on the thin side, but he had cheek bones to die for and piercingly blue eyes, not really Gwaine’s type but he could definitely see the appeal. More importantly, Arthur definitely saw the appeal if he’d even bothered to buy the guy some coffee. Gwaine decided to pay a visit to his colleague and poke him in the ribs about it. 

“So princess, buying coffee for the paralegal, that’s a new one” Gwaine said, casually leaning against the door frame of Arthur’s office. “Normally you just order them around until they break down crying and either quit or get fired. So what’s the story with this one then?”  
“Piss off, Gwaine” Arthur growled, he was buried in work and really not in the mood to be teased right now, but Gwaine only chuckled and sat down on the sofa, propping is feet up at the coffee table.   
“You fancy him, don’t you?”  
“What?” Arthur looked up. “What are you talking about?” His scowl deepened when he saw Gwaine’s boots on top of his coffee table. “Get your feet of my table.” Gwaine ignored him and asked again.  
“Admit it, you want to shag the bloke, right?” Arthur snapped at this.   
“Get. The. Hell. Out” he spat out as knocked Gwaine’s feet to the floor before marching to the door and holding it open with a meaningful stare. Unfazed Gwaine stood up and all but sauntered out, pausing in the doorway to ask:  
“So you don’t mind me having a go then?” The only answer that he got was the door slamming shut with enough force to rattle the whole building and Gwaine considered it a job well done. 

All the hard work paid off for Merlin and Gwaine just two weeks later when Gwaine won the case and, on top of that, Morgana also returned from court victorious, which she didn’t hesitate to rub in her dear brother’s face. Also, because of their recent successes, two new influential clients had been brought to the firm and the board was so pleased, and perhaps influenced by the Christmas spirit, that they decided to splash out on the celebrations. Instead of the usual Christmas lunch at the restaurant on the corner, reservations were made at the luxurious Albion Hotel.

The evening of the celebration arrived and the excitement rose in the office. The dress code for the evening was black tie so most of the men had no trouble with what to wear but the majority of the female employees had spent most of the afternoon in the bathrooms getting ready instead of working and Arthur scowled when he saw that both Gwaine and Merlin skipped work as well. Gwaine had dragged the paralegal out to buy him a new suit since it was discovered that he didn’t own anything suitable and Arthur mentally kicked himself for not thinking about asking Merlin himself. To forget this he concentrated on yelling at two of the secretaries that were giggling annoyingly loud and succeeded in reducing both of them to tears. This earned him a dirty look from Percival who’d recently started dating one of them and Arthur retreated to his office to sulk, and trying his best not to imagine Merlin parading around half-naked in front of Gwaine at the tailor. 

The afternoon dragged on and at last it was time to go. When people started getting into the taxis waiting outside Arthur was unfortunate enough to be roped in by his father and spent the whole ride holding a polite conversation with some of the senior board members while thinking about the fact that Merlin, looking positively edible in his new suit, had been ushered into a taxi by Gwaine and probably was fending off unwanted advances right now. 

Or maybe the advances weren’t that unwanted? Merlin certainly didn’t seem to mind hanging out with Gwaine, but of course Arthur didn’t care about that, not at all. Merlin was a grown man after all and could very well do what, and who, he pleased. Arthur quickly squished the small feeling of jealousy that came creeping when he considered the possibility of Merlin getting together with Gwaine and tried to concentrate on the small talk. Still he jumped out of the car almost before it had stopped and tried to ensure that they were seated at the same table at least, but luck was not on his side as he was made to sit with his father, Morgana and Leon while Merlin quickly found a place at the same table as Gwaine, Lancelot and Gwen. 

After the meal, the speeches, the polite applauses and the exchange of gifts those who wanted to relax went to the quieter lounge for some scotch and some business talk while those who wanted to really get the celebrations going hit the bar. Arthur, finally having escaped from his father’s clutches, soon found himself at the bar together with Leon and in no time he’d managed to get rid of the weariness that he felt from having had to dine with his father. And when Leon started retelling the never-ending story of how to find a suitable Christmas gift for Morgana, Arthur couldn’t help but laugh at his unfortunate friend, soon to be brother-in-law.  
“You really picked the right girlfriend didn’t you?” he exclaimed. “Good luck with that one, mate” he continued, wiping tears of laughter from his face. Leon threw him a sour look.  
“Some sympathy maybe?” he asked and at last Arthur managed to get himself together enough to take pity on his friend and help him out.   
“You should take her somewhere for a week-end, someplace up-scale but still relaxed” he advised. “There’s this place just outside Paris that she loves, I’ll text you the name.”  
“Cheers!” Leon said hastily with relief written all over his face, before he moved to rescue the poor accountant that tried to hit on his girlfriend. If the man wasn’t quickly removed from her presence it was likely that he would have to be carried off on a stretcher, after she’d hit him over the head with one of those lethal stiletto heels. Morgana detested accountants. 

When Merlin looked around the room and his eyes were drawn to Arthur. He seemed much more at ease now than he had during dinner and when he threw his head back and laughed at something that Leon said Merlin realized that he was staring, unable to look away. Blue eyes sparkling with mirth, blonde hair that shimmered golden in the light from the chandeliers and that strong jaw, that could be set in a firm, determined line, or like now, softened with a smile. Merlin wondered what it would be like to place light kisses along that jaw line, continuing down the neck, onto the lovely, muscled chest and even lower still, following the trail of blonde hair that disappeared beneath the waist band of the trousers and… 

Merlin drew his thoughts to a screeching halt right there and then and forced himself to look everywhere but at his boss. He tried to distract himself and took a large gulp from the glass that Gwaine had pushed into his hand and then coughed violently when the strong liquor burned his throat.  
“What was that?” he gasped, blinking away tears and Gwaine just laughed at him.  
“Why little bird, I never would have taken you for a light weight” he teased and thumped Merlin on the back a couple of times. Merlin scowled a bit at the nick name but decided not to push it. If he said that he didn’t like it Gwaine would probably only use it more often.   
“I’m not a light weight” he protested instead, despite the fact that he was. He rarely drank, and when he did it wasn’t much, and he could feel buzz of the alcohol spreading through his body.   
“Yes you are” Gwen intervened, but her sympathetic smile softened the comment. “And there’s nothing wrong with that, leave him alone Gwaine” she added and looked sternly at the lawyer.  
“I’m just helping him having a good time” Gwaine protested half-heartedly, his arm slung across Merlin’s shoulders but he was clearly distracted by one of the waitresses. “Excuse me” he said and quickly moved to help her as she struggled with a heavy tray of glasses. 

Arthur had witnessed the whole exchange, his eyes going stony whenever Gwaine touched Merlin, and his face was grim when he looked at Gwaine.  
“Jealousy doesn’t become you, princess” Gwaine smirked as he passed by and left a sputtering Arthur behind.


	7. Drunk drive and crocked confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In vino veritas…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

As the evening drew on the alcohol levels rose across the board and when it was time to call it a day and head home, it was clear that some were more inebriated than others. As the crowd thinned Arthur soon realized that Merlin wouldn’t make it home on his own. 

“I’ll get him home.” he sighed in answer to Gwen’s concerned question and pulled Merlin from his seat and promptly had to steady him when the younger man swayed dangerously.   
“I can take care of myself” Merlin protested and almost toppled over when he tried to stand on his own.  
“Yes, I can clearly see that” Arthur said sarcastically, pulling his arm more securely around the other man’s waist. “Why did you have to get him drunk off his ass Gwaine?”  
“I knew he was a light weight but not that it was this bad” Gwaine defended himself. “But if you’re getting this little bird home then I can go back to the pretty one over there” he continued and got back to the waitress that he’d been flirting with most of the evening. Arthur rolled his eyes and started half-dragging, half-walking a somewhat uncooperative Merlin towards the exit after he’d said goodbye to Gwen and Lancelot that had volunteered to drive her home. Arthur refrained from mentioning to Gwen that Lancelot would have an extra half an hour of driving because of this, and simply prayed that either of them would soon work up the courage to finally ask for a proper date. 

“No! I can take the metro” Merlin protested again as they got to the car but Arthur ignored him and all but poured him into the passenger’s seat.   
“Seatbelt on” he ordered and Merlin clumsily complied. Arthur looked at Merlin sternly before driving off.  
“Do not throw up in my car, do you hear me?”  
“Yes, sir” Merlin answered cheekily with a mock-salute and started giggling at his own joke. Arthur just shook his head and pulled away from the curb. 

They drove in silence for a while and Merlin dozed off until Arthur had parked the car and turned off the engine. That made Merlin open his eyes and stretch, the way a cat would after a good nap, and Arthur, who was finding it increasingly hard to look away from Merlin’s limber body, hurried to get out of the car. Merlin did the same, but slower and with more giggling.  
“Wait!” Merlin exclaimed, looking around and taking in the surroundings. “You said you’d take me home. This isn’t home. I’m not that drunk” He pointed an accusing finger at Arthur.   
“We’re at my flat” Arthur explained, painfully patient as if he was talking to a child. “Your building doesn’t have an elevator and I’d be damned if I was to haul your drunk ass up five flights of stairs.”  
“Oh, I like your thinking there” Merlin grinned widely. “Or maybe not.” The smile vanished and was replaced with a small frown. “Wouldn’t you catch me if I were to fall?” he asked.   
“Of course I would” Arthur answered, getting a bit fed up with the whole drunken conversation. It was cold and he wanted to get inside. “But I’d rather you didn’t fall at all.”   
“Would you catch me if I were to fall?” Merlin sang out. “I’d rather you didn’t fall at aaaaaall…” he continued, sounding a bit like the one hit wonder that Arthur dimly remembered having pestered the radio station some years ago.   
“Come on Arthur, we’re creating a duet here!” he said enthusiastically, gesturing for Arthur to sing along.  
“Not going to happen” Arthur told him firmly. “Let’s get you to bed, shall we?”  
“Yes, you’d really want that, now wouldn’t you?” Merlin said in a voice dripping with innuendo, pouting his lips in a way that Merlin in his drunken state probably thought to be sexy. The result may not have been exactly what he’d aimed for but Arthur felt his breath hitch momentarily anyway. “And I probably wouldn’t mind” he continued hinting and looked coyly at Arthur from beneath his long dark eye lashes. “I probably wouldn’t mind at all so if you’d just get over here and…”  
“Come on, Merlin” Arthur interrupted him and briskly started to walk inside.   
“I know you want me, I know you want me” Merlin started singing and Arthur swore right there and then that he’d have to do something about Merlin’s horrible taste in music. He also sent out a prayer of thanks to whatever deity that had ensured that the darkness was compact enough to hide the fact that he was blushing furiously. 

Once inside the apartment he unceremoniously dumped Merlin on the couch and went in search of a blanket and pillow for his surprise guest. When he returned Merlin had kicked off his shoes and snuggled up on the couch and was busy flipping through the channels on the TV. His hair was tousled and Arthur had to fight the instinct to lean in and ruffle it. Instead he threw the pillow at Merlin’s head, with the result that Merlin was not only comfortably curled up on the couch like a cat and sporting an adorable just-got-out-of-bed-style hair, he also pouted in a way that made Arthur’s trousers feel uncomfortably tight.   
“Hey!” Merlin said sulkily and rubbed his forehead where the pillow had hit and that was Arthur’s cue to leave, or else he might not be able to control himself much longer. He took control over the remote, turned off whatever music channel that Merlin had managed to find and turned to leave.  
“Goodnight Merlin” He heard some rustling of fabric and then Merlin’s sleepy voice.  
“G’night.”

The next morning Merlin woke up on an unfamiliar couch with a bad taste in his mouth. Slowly it all came back to him. He’d been drunk, very drunk, and flirted with his boss. Merlin groaned and put his head in his hands. He couldn’t stay, he’d have to get out before Arthur woke up and hopefully all would be forgotten after the week-end. He hastily pulled on his clothes and closed the door behind him silently, taking great care not to wake Arthur. He didn’t think he’d be able to face his boss just yet.

He never saw Arthur’s look of disappointment when he came into the living room and found the couch empty.


	8. Awkward aftermath, miserable Monday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day after the night before is always the worst…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

Monday morning came and it was time for Merlin to go to work. He’d been awake since dawn, practicing what to say to Arthur, and barely managing to eat some toast for breakfast. The commute seemed longer than ever and when he came to the office he was relieved to see that his boss hadn’t yet arrived, this would give him some valuable minutes to collect his thoughts and, more importantly, try to calm down his beating heart. He managed a weak smile in return for Gwen’s radiant one and avoided her concerned questions with the excuse of being tired. Since the same could be said for most of the employees on a Monday morning, especially after a party like that, this wasn’t questioned and he could escape to the relative privacy of his desk. 

“Arthur, I…” Merlin started when he saw his boss but Arthur brusquely cut him off.  
“Don’t.” Arthur’s eyes were like ice and his posture was rigid. “Just forget it ever happened.” Before Merlin had the chance to say anything else Arthur had disappeared into his office and slammed the door shut. Merlin put his head down on the desk and groaned. Arthur clearly hated him. 

So when Gwaine invited him along for and after work the same evening he went along to drown his sorrows, and ended up spending yet another night on an unfamiliar couch. But at least he didn’t hit on anyone this time, and the headache and nausea that came from to many tequila shots ensured that it would be a long time before he resorted to this particular form of therapy again. 

Arthur too tried alcohol as a way to forget what had happened. When he’d downed the better part of a bottle of scotch he sank down heavily on the couch that Merlin had slept on only a couple of days ago. Merlin had been there, in his house, on his couch, and told Arthur that he wanted him. Sure, he’d been pretty drunk when he said it but Arthur had seen the way Merlin looked at him. He was sure that if he’d made a move, and God knew that he wanted to, Merlin wouldn’t have stopped him, in fact he’d probably been most enthusiastic about it. So why hadn’t he? Why had he just closed the door to his bedroom behind him and ignored Merlin?

Of course, Arthur did pride himself on being a gentleman, and taking advantage of someone as drunk as Merlin was that night, even if Merlin might have wanted him to, wasn’t something that he’d normally do. But this was only part of the explanation that he’d stayed away. Even if Merlin had been too drunk to do anything that night they still could’ve talked about it later when they were both sober. Instead, Arthur’s initial disappointment that Merlin had already left when he woke up had turned into relief when he recalled the conversation that he’d recently had with his father. In the light of that conversation he decided that it was the best for both Merlin and himself to stay as far away from each other as possible, and so Arthur had ordered the paralegal to forget all about it and then proceeded to largely ignore him. He’d even gone so far as cutting back on Merlin’s hours at the office to minimize the time they spent together. 

Arthur had been so sure that his little crush, or rather huge his sexual obsession, with Merlin had gone unnoticed but when the paralegal had started flirting with him he realized that maybe he hadn’t been all that discreet and somehow Merlin had picked up on his signals. Realizing this he tried to turn a cold shoulder whenever Merlin tried to flirt and generally avoid him as much as possible. Even if Arthur in fact happened to be interested nothing could ever come of it and he didn’t want to give Merlin any false hope. 

But it was so hard for him to stay away. Especially when Merlin was all adorably drunk, singing silly songs with ruffled hair and sleepy eyes on his couch. Or when he laughed at something that Gwen said, or help the door open for the elderly man that delivered fresh fruit and cookies to the office. Or when he just was… Merlin. 

Head spinning from too many thoughts and too much alcohol, Arthur tried to get up and go to bed but quickly realized that he was too drunk and fell asleep on the couch instead, hugging the blanket that Merlin had borrowed and that he hadn’t managed to put in the washing machine yet. 

Tuesday came and passed in a blur of head ache and tiredness, for both of them, and it was easy to keep their interaction to a minimum and the longer they kept doing it, the more of a habit it became. 

Then the holidays came and went and gave both Merlin and Arthur a very welcome period of distance to each other but after New Year was celebrated it was back to business as usual. When they’d spent most of January trying to avoid each other their friends started to notice that something was wrong. 

Arthur, normally a hard worker, had taken on a workload of superhuman proportions and now practically lived at the office, looking permanently discontent and tired. Merlin on the other hand worked less than ever since having had his hours at the office cut back and he looked paler than ever, skittering like a nervous horse every time that Arthur was around. He began to make mistakes, even when doing routine tasks that he’d normally do in his sleep, and more than once one of his colleagues had to help him out to save him from being fired. Despite this, both Merlin and Arthur insisted that they were fine and that everyone should get off their backs.


	9. Meddling mates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Since Merlin and Arthur doesn’t seem to be able to sort things out on their own their friends decides to step in and try to fix things…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

It was soon clear to anyone even remotely close to either Merlin or Arthur that something was very wrong and when they could no longer stand to watch the two of them walking around looking miserable Gwaine called an improvised emergency meeting in one of the supply rooms. This made Morgana wrinkle her nose in disgust and Gwen giggle nervously.  
“It feels like being back in high school” she told the others and Gwaine immediately wanted to know what business that she’d had in the school’s supply rooms. To save Gwen who was blushing crimson red and to get the conversation back on track Lancelot took the opportunity to remind everyone that this meeting was about helping their friends and nothing else and Morgana started off by suggesting that they’d hit Arthur over the head to knock some sense into him and then be done with it. Leon thought it a bit too harsh and for a while it looked like another couple was facing love troubles as well, but in the end they all managed to agree on a plan, without any break-ups or someone being forced to sleep on the couch. 

Merlin eyed them suspiciously when they all exited the supply room but soon forgot about it as a delivery arrived and provided a welcome diversion. The rest of the day passed without incidents and just before it was time to head home the carefully crafted plan was put into action. The first thing that they had to do was to get more information. Both the involved parties had been maddeningly quiet about the whole affair and to sort this out details were needed. 

Gwaine cornered Merlin on his way out and before he knew what had happened he was sat down on the plush couch in Gwen’s living room with a steaming mug of tea in his hands and a knitted blanket around his shoulders. At first he was reluctant to tell them anything, as well as angry of being tricked, but between the two of them, Gwaine and Gwen soon had coaxed the whole story out of him. 

He told them everything about Arthur, how he’d been a prat at first and how they slowly had gotten along better and better, how he’d even seemed interested in Merlin but then had turned a cold shoulder when Merlin finally picked up the courage to discreetly flirt back.   
“I thought that he was interested and when I started hitting on him, you know, just casually, he just started to avoid me completely” Merlin sighed. “I guess I totally misinterpreted that one.”   
“I don’t think you did” Gwaine mumbled when Merlin’s voice trailed away and the younger man looked up from the floor surprisedly. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you” Gwaine continued. “He’s interested for sure.”   
“But why would he avoid me then?” Merlin asked and Gwaine shrugged his shoulders. “I practically begged him to sleep with me at the Christmas party and he didn’t do anything but tuck me in!” he exclaimed and Gwaine barked out a laugh.   
“Yeah, you were pretty sloshed that night” he remembered smirking.   
“And whose fault was that?” Merlin asked sharply, partly ashamed, partly angry.  
“Hey, don’t blame that one on me” Gwaine retorted. “I didn’t force you to drink.” They both glared at each other and Gwen felt the need to intervene.   
“Hey! Let’s focus, yeah?” she gently reminded them and they both looked at her guiltily.  
“You’re going to make a fine mother” Gwaine grumbled. “You manage to reprimand people even when you’re smiling.” He sighed heavily. “All right then, little bird, what happened then?” he asked Merlin who winced at the nick name. One day or the other he’d have to do something permanent about that but for now he focused on telling the rest of the story.   
“… and when I tried to apologize he just told me to forget about it.” They all sat quietly for a while, Merlin silently playing with the teacup that he was holding.   
“What are you going to do?” Gwen asked softly after a while and Merlin shrugged his shoulders.   
“I don’t know” he answered miserably. “He’s cut down on my hours too, so I’ll have to find a second job or I won’t be able to pay my rent this month.” Gwen’s calmness and composure quickly turned into rage when she heard this and would have charged right out of the apartment to yell at Arthur hadn’t Lancelot come home at the same time and stopped her in the hallway. He’d picked up some Indian food for all of them on the way home and managed to get them all to settle down and eat and think things through before they did anything else. 

Leon’s approach for dealing with Arthur was more direct.   
“I thought that you liked him” he said brusquely after cornering Arthur in his office and Arthur silently cursed his friend for being so perceptive. Leon was laid back to the point that people sometimes even forgot that he was in the room but this worked to his advantage as he could observe without being observed himself. Not much escaped Leon’s attention so Arthur knew it would have been futile to wish that both his crush on and recent avoidance of Merlin would go unnoticed.   
“Not here” he muttered under his breath throwing a cautious glance over his shoulder and Leon nodded.   
“My place tonight then” he said but Arthur shook his head vigorously.  
“Are you crazy?” he asked. “No way, not with my nosy sister hanging around.”  
“She’ll be at Morgause’s, having some sort of sleep over and chick movie marathon” Leon said a bit offhandedly and Arthur grinned wickedly.   
“You know that’s just an excuse to gossip about their sex lives, right?” he smirked and Leon’s cheeks turned bright pink.  
“Either you go by yourself or I’ll drag you there” he threatened and then he left abruptly, still blushing. 

Arthur chuckled but then turned serious as he contemplated his possibilities of escaping. He didn’t doubt for one second that Leon was capable of dragging him home, nor that he actually would do it if he deemed that the situation needed it. Since it seemed that there was no getting out of this one Arthur resigned himself to his fate and tried to figure out what to tell Leon. He didn’t want to lie to his friend but he didn’t want him to know the whole story either. Arthur wasn’t particularly proud of how he’d handled the situation and he knew that Leon wouldn’t be too impressed with him either. 

Having realized early on in his life that nothing that he did would ever be good enough for his father, Arthur had learnt to try to seek approval from others, people that would actually tell him when he did something good and not just point out his flaws. Leon was one of those people and disappointing him felt to Arthur as if he was disappointing his older brother. 

But he actually didn’t want to disappoint his father either, and he had a feeling that whatever he did in this situation he’d either be disappointing Leon or his father and then he hadn’t really thought about how much he was disappointing himself with his actions. He sighed and went to find Leon. They might as well go home straight away, he wouldn’t get any more work done today anyway. 

He squirmed a little at first, and tried to choose his words carefully, but it wasn’t long until Leon’s steady blue gaze made him spill and he told his friend everything. The beer probably helped as well, Leon had long since given up discussing things that Arthur didn’t want to talk about without getting him at least a tiny bit drunk first. 

“I even went out to find someone else to sleep with” Arthur admitted sheepishly. “You know, to get him out of my head?” He cringed when Leon only shook his head disappointedly and went to the kitchen. He came back holding two more beers and passed one of them to Arthur.  
“I need more alcohol if I’m to make it through this conversation” he said as he sank back down on the couch and drank deeply. “And you definitely need it, you idiot” he then continued, looking at Arthur with a mix of irritation and fondness in his eyes. “Why do you have to make everything so fucking complicated?”  
“It’s the fucking that makes it complicated” Arthur answered, his words now a little bit slurred. “The fucking want to fuck Merlin I mean” he clarified and Leon hit him over the head.   
“You idiot” he repeated, sighing. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”

He decided that he wouldn’t be able to sort this out on his own and called Morgana. If anyone knew what to do with Arthur it had to be his sister. 

“Traitor!” Arthur exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Leon when Morgana entered the living room. “What about bros before hoes?” he continued, swaying slightly, and Morgana shot her fiancé a critical look.   
“Did you have to get him that drunk?” she asked pointedly and Leon shrugged.  
“Have you tried to talk about feelings with him without alcohol?” he asked and Morgana considered this.  
“Yeah, you’re right” she acquiesced after a moment and turned her eyes to her brother to make an assessment on the level of inebriation. She quickly came to the conclusion that anything that she said right now would probably go straight over Arthur’s head.   
“It’s no use doing this now, we better let him sleep it off and talk in the morning” she said to Leon and with combined forces they managed to maneuver a protesting Arthur into the guest room and get him to bed.   
“Good night, brother dear” Morgana whispered when she closed the door. “We’ll talk in the morning.” 

Arthur shuddered. He definitely didn’t look forward to it.


	10. Facing the facts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Forced to deal with the situation by their (meddling, well-meaning and somewhat overbearing) friends, Merlin and Arthur manages to establish a tentative truce.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

The next morning Arthur woke up to the heavenly smell of freshly brewed coffee and a less than pleasant discussion with his sister and he solemnly swore that his revenge would be doing his outmost to embarrass Leon on his stag party when that day finally came. Maybe he’d force him to walk around as a drag queen, or perhaps in one of those horrible jumpsuits. Yes, that was it, a pink jumpsuit would look terrific with that curly blonde hair and…

“Arthur.” His sister’s sharp voice broke through his thoughts and he looked up to find her suspiciously glaring at him. “Are you listening?”  
“Yes” he said straightening up. “I’ve been a horrible person and a bloody idiot and I should apologize to Merlin and make it up to him by offering him more hours at the office.” As much as Arthur realized that what he’d done wasn’t exactly something to be proud of he just whished that everyone would just stop rubbing it in his face and let him handle it in his own way and in his own time. Apparently he wasn’t to be trusted to do that since Leon sighed and Morgana’s eyes narrowed when they heard his response.   
“What?” Arthur asked angrily. “Ow!”   
“Sorry, brother dear, but you deserved that” she said, causally leaning back on the couch after having smacked him over the head. “As thick-headed as you are it shouldn’t leave any lasting damage” she added smirking and Arthur glared accusingly at Leon for support.   
“Sorry, mate, but I don’t fancy sleeping on the couch tonight” Leon mumbled apologetically and Arthur huffed something about his friend being thoroughly whipped.  
“You’re not making it up to Merlin by reinstating the hours that you cut, which I might add, lead him to nearly not being able to pay his rent, that goes without saying” Morgana said looking at him sternly and Arthur was prepared to admit that in this case then maybe he was a bit whipped as well. He would certainly not argue with Morgana when she’d made up her mind like that. “You will, however, make this up to him by doing something nice for him” she continued and Arthur stared at her unbelievingly.   
“Do something nice?” he said, making it sound like a completely foreign concept. “Like what, by him flowers?” This time it was Morgana that sighed and Leon went as far as putting his face into his hands and groan.   
“And to believe that this one has actually been engaged to an actual human being” Morgana muttered but Arthur paid no attention to the insult as he had suddenly had a vision of himself and Merlin, in a large hotel suite where every surface was covered in roses. How the soft candle light would create shadows dancing on the walls and how he’d scatter rose petals all over Merlin’s body to see the contrast between pale skin and blood red roses, how he’d gently brush them aside as he kissed and licked all over Merlin’s body before wrapping his lips around…

“Arthur!” His sister’s shout startled him and had him looking guiltily from her to Leon and then back again, as if they’d somehow been able to read his thoughts. He blushed bright red at the thought and that didn’t escape Morgana’s notice.   
“Seriously, Arthur, for how long are you going to live your life the way Uther dictates it?” Morgana asked brusquely. “You were thinking about him just now, weren’t you?” she continued and her tone softened a little. Arthur abruptly stood and went over to the window, his jaw set in a firm line.   
“I most definitely was not thinking about Uther” he snapped, deliberately misinterpreting who his sister was talking about, but there was no fooling Morgana and the look in her eyes almost resembled pity.   
“If you say so” she mumbled, sharing a knowing look with her fiancé. 

The first thing that Arthur did when he came to the office was to call Merlin into his office to apologize. As he ushered the paralegal inside he rolled his eyes at Morgana who tried to look casual standing with a mug of coffee in the small kitchenette it was clear that she observed what was going on to make sure that he followed through. As he disappeared through the door himself he couldn’t resist giving his sister a rude two-fingered salute as a parting gift but unfortunately Gwen stood next to Morgana and she looked less than impressed with his behavior. Arthur winced, it clearly wasn’t his day today, and if he didn’t watch out he would soon have to apologize to the whole firm for the sole reason of existing. 

As soon as the door closed behind the two of them Merlin started nervously fiddling with the cuffs of his shirt and Arthur motioned towards the small couch with what he hoped was a friendly smile.   
“Please sit down Merlin, I need to talk to you.” Merlin complied although he sat on the very edge of the couch, looking ready to run off at any minute. Arthur took a deep breath.   
“First I would like to apologize…”

When they emerged from the office around an hour later Arthur wasn’t surprised to see not only Morgana and Gwen throwing anxious glances towards his office, but also Leon, Gwaine and Lancelot, and, for some weird reason, Percival. Arthur smiled wryly when he realized that at least someone had thought that this meeting might require assistance from security personnel. Merlin went back to his desk and immediately he was surrounded by Gwen and Gwaine asking him a million questions while Lancelot got all of them coffee. Arthur, who soon realized that if he wanted any coffee he’d have to get it himself, made his way over to the kitchen and responded to Morgana’s questioning look with a shrug of his shoulders.  
“What?”  
“Well?” she prompted. “Did you apologize?”  
“Oh, ye of little faith” Arthur scoffed, sneaking a shortbread to go with the coffee. “Yes, I did, you harpy, now will you get off my back?”  
“Not just yet.” Morgana’s eyes narrowed and she blocked the way as Arthur tried to get back to the safety of his office. “What else did you say?” she wanted to know and Arthur growled at the question, pushed roughly past her and slammed the door to his office behind him. Even if she meant well, there were still some things regarding his private life that Arthur preferred to keep just private.


	11. Hapless half-measures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morgana has had enough of Arthur’s hopelessness and poor dating skills and Merlin unexpectedly finds himself going out with a certain gorgeous guy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

They all waited. And waited. But as the week went on both Merlin and Arthur remained frustratingly quiet about what had really happened in the office. Arthur brushed off any attempts to have a conversation on the subject and Merlin had just told his friends that everything was fine. There was no fighting, no shouting, Arthur didn’t overwork himself (not as much as before anyway) and Merlin looked less pale and haggard and more like his old self. However, all their interaction at work was overly polite, bordering on boring, and the easy banter that once was between them was completely gone. 

No one knew quite how to react. They’d all thought that Arthur and Merlin had made up and that by now they’d be forced to ignore an excessive amount of public displays of affection and sickeningly cuteness, instead they watched a lot of please’s, thank you’s and a maddeningly correct workplace behaviour, with a maximum of political correctness and minimum of physical contact and personality. 

Friday couldn’t come fast enough for Arthur and for once he left the office at a decent hour. He went straight home and drew himself a scorching hot bath, intending to do nothing more than ordering some food and watch crappy telly for the rest of the evening. He left the clothes in a pile on the floor and got into the large tub with a content sigh. Tonight he would do nothing but relaxing, and the most complex question on his mind would be whether he’d order some pizza or if he felt more like having chicken wings, or maybe something from the Thai restaurant across the street. He closed his eyes and felt the tension slowly beginning to seep out of his muscles. 

“This is not what I meant!” Morgana’s annoyed voice pierced his thoughts and chased away whatever peace and calm he’d managed to find. “Where are you, Arthur? I want to talk to you.” Arthur winced slightly when he heard her moving through the living room and sank deeper down under the water to block out his annoying sister. With his ears under the water he couldn’t hear her anymore and he drew a deep breath and willed his muscles to relax again. 

The next thing that happened was that a towel came flying and hit him square in the face. Arthur swallowed a mouthful of bath water in surprise and resurfaced sputtering and coughing, feeling thoroughly pissed-off.  
“What the fuck? That door was locked!” he yelled at his sister now standing in his bathroom and wrinkling her nose at the mess on the floor.   
“Yes, it was” Morgana acquiesced, calmly putting a bobby pin back into her hair. “And now it’s open. Tell me, do you always leave your designer suits in a pile of water on the floor?” she asked critically. Arthur only glared at her as he climbed out of the tub and shrugged on a bath robe. It was evident that he wouldn’t get any peace and quiet until his sister had spoken her mind. 

“What do you have to say for yourself?” Morgana glared at him as he sank down heavily on the sofa but Arthur refused to feel guilty.   
“Morgana, I don’t even know what you’re talking about” he protested.  
“The tickets, Arthur, I’m talking about the bloody tickets!” she half-shouted, exasperated, as she paced around the living room.   
“What about them? You wanted me to do something nice for him so I did. He has crap taste in music so this will be a great opportunity to educate him a little and it’s a nice thing to do, yeah? Everybody likes going to concerts” Arthur said defensively and tried to ignore the way his sister shook her head in disbelief.   
“Are you out of your mind?” she asked but when he opened his mouth to reply she hastily held up a hand. “No, wait, don’t answer that” she continued, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Why aren’t you going with him?”   
“Why on earth would I do that?” Arthur asked incredulously and Morgana almost whined with annoyance.   
“Because it’s supposed to be a date, you idiot!” she yelled.   
“It’s not a date!” Arthur protested vehemently. “And now I’d quite like to get back to my bath, thank you very much” he continued as he took his sister’s arm, escorted her to the door and unceremoniously closed the door in her face. This time he remembered to put on the security chain as well to ensure that he could have his bath without further interruptions. His sister meant well but when it came to his (sadly non-existent) love life she had no right to interfere. 

If Morgana was annoyed with Arthur for not taking Merlin to the concert himself, she turned livid on Monday morning when she found out who had accompanied him instead.   
“Seriously, Arthur, how you can be such an utter idiot is beyond me” she’d hissed, poking him hard in the chest with one well-manicured, scarlet red nail before storming off to her office and slamming the door shut. Arthur made a rude gesture to everyone that was too nosy to stop staring at him and then went to his own office. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t known that Merlin would as someone to come with him to the concert but he’d thought that he’d ask Gwen or one of his friends. He had not expected that Merlin would pick up his courage and ask Will, his gorgeous neighbour and environmental rights activist, to accompany him and he certainly had not expected this Will to not only say yes but also stay the night at Merlin’s place afterwards. Arthur had almost crushed his phone when Gwaine had sent him that text and it got worse after the weekend. Every time that Merlin smiled when his phone called Arthur wanted nothing else than to throw it out of the window, along with the organic cranberry cookies that Merlin had found on his desk one morning. 

So maybe, just maybe Arthur had called in a favour or two from an old friend, and maybe, just maybe said friend happened to be a police officer that had access to some really interesting information about this Will person. And maybe, just maybe, said information happened to make its way to the officer in charge of supervising the demonstrators in front of the house of parliament to protest against the government’s new policy to battle climate change and maybe, just maybe, said officer happened to recognize a certain bloke and take him into custody. 

But if Merlin’s Friday night was disturbed because he had to bail out his date from the police office it certainly wasn’t Arthur’s fault, wasn’t it?  
Because that was just a risk one had to take when dating criminals instead of lawyers wasn’t it?


	12. Jealous jerk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin’s not happy with the way Arthur has acted and he’s not afraid to show it…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

Merlin stormed into Arthur’s office and glared at his boss with so much contempt that Arthur was secretly relieved that looks couldn’t actually kill. If that would have been the case then he’d surely been a pile of dust on the floor by now, judging by the way Merlin scowled at him.  
“It was you, wasn’t it?” Merlin snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. “How the bloody hell could you do that?”  
“Do what?” Arthur snapped back, trying to sound innocent and like he had no idea what Merlin was talking about.   
“Don’t give me that crap” Merlin retorted. “Will just happened to get arrested the same night as we were going out, which you very well knew since you asked Gwaine about it. Not too hard to put the pieces together then.”  
“Surely just an unfortunate coincidence” Arthur shrugged, attempting a causal look. “You’re not telling me that you’re really surprised, are you? It was bound to happen sooner or later with his … life style.”  
“Life style?” Merlin echoed furiously. “He fights for what he believes is right!”  
“Bloody tree-hugger!” Arthur scowled disdainfully before he could stop himself. Truth to be told, Arthur didn’t have anything against Will, apart from the fact that he dated Merlin. As long as he dated anyone but Merlin he could very well hug all the trees in the world, and sing sweet lullabies to the lakes or whatever these environmentalists were up to. 

“Trust me Merlin, you’re better off without him.”  
“I knew it! You know what that is, you jealous jerk? It’s a crime of passion, you possessive prat!” Merlin yelled, staring accusingly at Arthur.   
“Don’t be stupid, Merlin” Arthur sneered. “It’s not like I killed anyone.”  
“You killed my love life!” Merlin shouted and Arthur couldn’t help it, he started laughing to the point where he was nearly crying. It was no use trying to contain himself because that would prove impossible when Merlin was standing in front of him, shouting angrily while making wild gestures, his normally pale face now a bright tomato red colour and his black hair in a downright mess. Arthur took one more look and then collapsed in a heap on the floor, gasping for air. 

Furiously Merlin turned on his heel and ran from the office before Arthur had the chance to put himself together and at least try to apologize. He hadn’t meant to be that mean but he just hadn’t been able to stop himself when he learned that Merlin was seeing someone, and as for the laughing, Arthur was certain that not many people could have kept a straight face with Merlin looking like that.  
“Killed his love life…” he chuckled to himself when he went back to his laptop and tried to concentrate on whatever it was that he was doing before Merlin came storming in. 

Two hours later Arthur still hadn’t seen Merlin coming back and since it was getting close to lunch time he felt his concentration slipping. He decided to get some fresh air and grab a sandwich, and look for his missing paralegal at the same time. Surely merlin would’ve calmed down by now and if not Arthur supposed that he’d have to apologize and the matter would be solved. As he exited his office he noticed Gwaine glaring at him but that didn’t strike him as odd, at least not until Gwen, ever friendly sweet Gwen, gave him a hard look instead of the usual smile and Lancelot only nodded in return to Arthur’s greeting. 

Slightly puzzled Arthur continued out on the street and when he’d entered the coffee shop on the corner he knew that something was wrong. Not only had thy sold out on all the sandwiches that he wanted, nor did they have the ingredients to make him one, but the coffee machine was also broken and he couldn’t get a hot drink either. It wasn’t until Arthur returned to the office, a bit late, very annoyed and slightly out of breath, that it his him. It was the same coffee shop that delivered the pastries and cookies to the office and Merlin had become a good friend of both the owner and his staff. No wonder he was given the cold shoulder, as everyone seemed to regard him as some sort of insensitive jerk. With a frustrated sigh he looked at the dry and not very appealing swiss on rye that he’d bought and hoped that they’d soon forgive him. Besides, if they thought that it was so damn easy to have Uther for a father they were very welcome to switch life with him for a week to see what it was really like to never be good enough and always have to strive harder but never receive any praise for it and be forced to hide his true self and...

Arthur was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t registered what was going on around him. It wasn’t until he bumped into one of the secretaries that he realized that the whole office seemed to be standing lobby, looking various degrees of upset and distressed. He muttered and apology while looking around and managed to locate Leon, squeezing in beside him.  
“What’s going on?” he asked quietly but before Leon had the time to answer the crowd parted to let Lancelot through. He carried a box with a few personal belongings and quietly handed his employee ID card to the security guard on duty. The crowd fell silent as he turned, waved and gave them a shadow of his usual smile. Then he exited the office.   
“Make sure to escort him outside the building” Uther harshly commanded and Percival, looking very uneasy, followed Lancelot out.   
“What are you all staring at?” Uther barker out, looking at the people around him. “Get back to work!” Everyone snapped back into action and got busy, or at least tried to look as if they were, and soon the crowd had thinned enough for him to see Gwen crying behind her desk, and a group of people, Merlin included, tried to comfort her. When Merlin looked up and saw Arthur staring at him his lips stretched into a thin line and his face hardened. Then he slowly and deliberately turned his back.  
“Leon, tell me what the fuck’s going on?” Arthur demanded desperately and all but dragged his friend into a quiet corner.   
“You’re not going to like it” Leon warned.   
“Just spit it out, will you?” Arthur snapped and Leon took a deep breath.  
“Lancelot’s been fired.”


	13. Clashing convictions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin starts to wonder what kind of a man Arthur really is…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

“Lancelot’s been fired?” Arthur echoed unbelievingly. “Why?” he continued. “He’s one of our best lawyers.”  
“You should go ask daddy dear, Pendragon” Gwaine snarled as he passed the two of them on his way out and left Arthur to stare at his retreating back.  
“Why is everyone treating me like that today?” he asked exasperated. “First Merlin, then Gwen and Lancelot and the people at the coffee shop and now Gwaine. What exactly did I do to offend the whole world?”   
“Let’s talk” Leon murmured and motioned towards Arthur’s office. It wasn’t until both of them had entered and closed the door behind them that Arthur got to know the full story behind Lancelot’s dismissal. The conversation left him disgusted and disappointed and he took the rest of the day off, which had not happened since that time when he was involved in a car accident and got himself landed in hospital for a week, and even then he’d worked from his bed. Now he closed down his computer and tossed his work phone into a corner and then he headed out to get drunk. Really drunk. When he made Leon pick him up and haul him home a couple of hours later his friend only sighed and dragged him into the guest room, tossing a couple of pain killers on the night stand beside a bottle of water. He just wished that one day or another Arthur would learn that alcohol wasn’t necessarily the best solution for handling unpleasant things. 

While Arthur was busy processing the unpleasant news with rather large amounts of alcohol, Merlin spent his afternoon trying to take care of an inconsolable Gwen and at the same time as stopping Gwaine from attacking Uther physically, as well as listening to all the ridiculous rumours that flew around the office. After work the pity party moved to Gwen’s apartment where Lancelot joined them and Merlin and Gwaine tried to outdo each other on coming up with foul names to call Uther, while Lancelot himself tried to ensure everyone present that it could have been worse and Gwen browsed through a million different sites to find him a new job. 

The first thing Arthur did the next morning, after gulping down a few pain killers and eating an light breakfast that didn’t upset his poor stomach even more , was to request a meeting with his father.  
“Mr Pendragon?” He looked up when his father’s secretary addressed him. “He will see you now.” Arthur nodded to the woman and pushed the door open. Uther was at his desk and didn’t look up when Arthur entered, not that he had expected him to.   
“You have five minutes” Uther said in lieu of a greeting and maybe it was the tone, maybe it was the fact that Arthur was still a bit hungover (or maybe still drunk considering how much he’d consumed the day before) or maybe it was just the injustice of the whole situation that made Arthur blurt out something completely different than his carefully rehearsed speech.  
“Did you fire Lancelot because he didn’t obey you and went to court instead of accepting the settlement offer?” Uther slowly looked up from his documents and gave Arthur an icy look. He didn’t say anything and Arthur swallowed audibly.   
“It is well known that you’re a major shareholder in that company and being involved in a trial would look bad. It’s not hard to see that you’d rather have the dispute settled without a lawsuit.” Uther still at silently and Arthur continued.  
“I just mean that it wouldn’t be, for someone to come to the conclusion that, you know, and that may affect us, and I also don’t think that your personal opinion should…” He realized that he was babbling and quickly stopped when Uther held up his hand and started speaking, his voice completely devoid of any emotion.  
“Arthur. If you’re not happy with the way that I manage this firm you are free to leave. I will not however have you questioning my decisions should you decide to stay. Keeping that in mind, you’d do well to consider your future with this firm, especially since you took yesterday afternoon off for no valid reason.” Then Uther’s eyes returned to his documents and Arthur knew that he was dismissed and it was with heavy steps that he returned to his own office. 

He’d asked around a bit and done some careful research on why Lancelot really was fired, because the official reason was unconvincing to say the least. He had suspected that Uther’s involvement in the company had something to do with Lancelot’s dismissal and now his father’s reaction only had confirmed his suspicions. Arthur didn’t know what to do about it, and on top of everything else Merlin still glared at him with such contempt that Arthur saw prudent to hide all the knives in the kitchenette, for the safety of everyone involved. He’d hoped that Merlin would accept his apology and while he said that he had, Merlin was still upset about the fact that Arthur let his father’s and society’s opinions dictate his life and his happiness. He was also disappointed because Will wouldn’t go out with him anymore, even after both Merlin and a very reluctant Arthur had explained the situation and apologized. 

After Merlin had thrown an especially dark look at Arthur his patience snapped and he whipped around and glared at his paralegal.  
“What’s the bloody problem, Merlin? I said I was sorry!”  
“You really think that the world revolves around you, don’t you?” Merlin scowled back, clearly unimpressed. “The bloody problem, as you so elegantly put it, is that one of my friends has lost his job. I want Lancelot to get his job back.”  
“Well, that makes two of us” Arthur muttered.  
“Oh, I don’ see you working your ass off to make that happen” Merlin retorted and Arthur felt stung.  
“Hey, I tried to talk to my father” he protested, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth he realized how feeble it sounded and Merlin raised an eyebrow.   
“Wow, what a heroic effort” he said with a mocking applause. “Feels good to know that you fight for what’s right.”  
“You don’t just go against my father, Merlin, it just isn’t done!” Arthur all but yelled and Merlin’s eyes darkened.   
“You are many things, Arthur Pendragon, but I didn’t think that a coward was one of them” he spat out and then stormed out of the office, slamming the door with enough force to make one of the paintings on the wall fall off its hook and smash onto the floor. Arthur sighed and looked at the mess but made no move to get up and take care of it. With all the door slamming that had been going on recently he started to suspect that he’d have to replace his whole office soon enough, and he could very well take care of broken paintings at the same time as the rest of the furniture. 

He lowered his forehead to the desk and for a brief moment considered banging his head on the hard surface but only sighed instead. If anyone had asked him yesterday, he wouldn’t have considered himself a coward either. But now he wasn’t so sure.


	14. Troublesome tree-hugger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Arthur finally seem to be finding their way back to their former friendship, Merlin tries to help a friend and a certain tree-hugger is causing trouble…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

“Arthur?” Arthur was a bit surprised that Merlin actually talked to him out of his own free will but he tried not to show it.

“Yes?” He didn’t quite know how to act around Merlin these days so he kept his voice calm and professional, not knowing if Merlin was angry with him or if something had happened. “Don’t all the lawyers here take on a certain amount of pro bono cases?” The question was rhetorical since Merlin already knew that this was the case. Arthur nodded in answer without looking away from the computer screen and wondered why Merlin would ask him that.

“I looked into it” Merlin said hesitantly, “and it doesn’t seem that you’ve done so many pro bono cases and so I was thinking…”

“Don’t hurt yourself, Merlin” Arthur interrupted, still writing. The small jab was out pf Arthur’s mouth before he knew what he’d said, out of old habit most likely, but luckily Merlin didn’t seem offended by it.

“And so I was thinking” Merlin continued as if he hadn’t heard the insult, “that maybe you wanted a case?”

“Do I look like I need more work right now, Merlin?” Arthur said, finally looking up. Merlin swallowed and had to admit that Arthur probably didn’t need more on his plate right now, especially with the extra workload that came with Lancelot’s dismissal and the row that he’d had with Uther. The whole office knew about it, and since no one was quite sure what had been said between father and son, some of the rumours flying around the office were downright insane. Merlin’s shoulders slumped.

“It was just a thought” he mumbled and turned to leave. He wasn’t surprised that Arthur had turned him down though, with everything that was going on and, not to mention, the fact that most of their communication these last weeks had consisted of shouting, cold shoulders and pointed glares. He would have to find another way to help Will.

 

If Arthur was surprised to see Merlin borrow a huge stack of books about environmental law to take home he didn’t say anything. Nor did he mention the fact that Merlin shut himself into Leon’s office for over an hour and came back out looking very thoughtful, although he was very curious as to why.

 

The next day Arthur was even more surprised when he walked into his office and found that a cup of coffee was on his desk, all his files were sorted and the mail was neatly organized.

“Merlin?” Arthur called out cautiously. “What is the meaning of all this?” he said, making a sweeping gesture to indicate his desk.

“Your morning coffee, with today’s mail and the files you’ll need. And, I’ve ordered lunch for the client meeting at twelve thirty; it’s all in your calendar” Merlin said, handing him a piece of paper. “And you need to call this woman; she had some information about the lawsuit against Helios Ltd.”

“Well, now I know something’s definitely wrong” Arthur said suspiciously. “What have you done, robbed a bank? Need to borrow money?“ Merlin sighed but he did look a little guilty.

“No, maybe I was a bit wrong about you. I know that you tried to talk to your father, and that he isn’t one of the most reasonable men at times…” Merlin shuffled his feet and then continued. “Also, Leon told me that it was you who worked out the real reason why Lancelot was fired. I know you probably can’t tell me about that, but still… And he said that you gave Lancelot the recommendation that he needed to find a new job, so, I guess I’m sorry for what I said to you. About being a coward and all that.”

“You guess?” Arthur said, being torn between smiling widely because Merlin had forgiven him and scowling because he wasn’t getting a proper apology.

“All right, I am sorry!” Merlin threw out his hands. “But you’re still a pompous prat and jealous jerk that gets my boyfriends arrested” he added, pointing accusingly at Arthur.

“Hey! That happened once!” Arthur protested.

“Hey yourself, one time is one too many, wouldn’t you say?” Merlin retorted and Arthur shrugged uncomfortably. He wasn’t particularly proud of what he’d done but if they could actually joke about it now then maybe with time it would just be a weird memory between them. Merlin chewed on his bottom lip and then continued.

“But since you mentioned it, there actually is something that you could help me with. If you have time, of course, and I know that you maybe won’t be able to do so much but I’d really appreciate it if you could and…” He hesitated and Arthur rolled his eyes.

“Spit it out, will you?” he prompted and Merlin cleared his throat.   
“Will’s in trouble and I’ve tried to help him myself but I’m stuck and I don’t know how to continue. I was wondering if you could help me, at least take a look at it?” Arthur made a show of looking displeased but was actually happy that he and Merlin finally seemed to be on their way back to the easy friendship they had before and lifted the coffee cup.

“I’ll read through it, while drinking this little bribe” he said, pointedly taking a sip, and Merlin smiled sheepishly.

“Thank you.” He thrust a stack of papers in Arthur’s hands and went back to his own desk as Arthur sighed and started leafing through the material.

 

It didn’t take Arthur long to realize just how much trouble Will was in and he did discuss his conclusions with Leon, just to be sure, before he talked to Merlin. He knew that what he had to say would likely destroy their friendship for good but he had to warn Merlin, even if that wasn’t the answer that the paralegal expected or wanted.

 

“Is there something you can do?” Merlin looked up with a hopeful smile and the anger Arthur felt over having to extinguish that hope hit him like a punch to the stomach. Still, there was no other way to do this and he cleared his throat.

“There is nothing I can do for Will” he said stiffly, handing the papers back. “And if you try to help him, you’ll go down with him. So just stay out of it, ok?” He couldn’t look Merlin in the eyes and hurried away before Merlin had the chance to say anything.


	15. Son of a sinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur finds himself between a rock and a hard place and he doesn’t know what to do…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

After Arthur’s refusal to help Merlin with Will’s case the paralegal had gone back to using a minimum of communication, mainly consisting of angry glares and pointed remarks, and Arthur supposed that he should have expected nothing less. He hadn’t given Merlin any explanation at all to his blunt refusal to help and of course this naturally led to Merlin to think that his boss was being an arrogant ass just out of spite. Contrary to what Merlin thought, Arthur did this to protect him but he couldn’t tell Merlin that. Any explanation that Arthur would ever give was only bound to either make Merlin more suspicious or even more determined to win the case, and Arthur knew that he had to keep him as far away from all this as possible. This was not a fight that anyone could win.

 

Merlin didn’t know that Will’s case was far more complicated that it seemed at first sight, both because there was seriously large sums of money at stake and also because Arthur’s father was involved. This was not something that was supposed to be public knowledge and it had taken some serious digging for Arthur to navigate through the expertly designed maze of subsidiary companies, private foundations and holding companies before he realized that everything could be traced back to Uther Pendragon and some of his charming acquaintances. This was not a small hobby, a little side project to Uther’s regular job at the law firm. This was the real deal and it was serious. From what Arthur had been able to learn this was a major operation, carefully set up with one sole objective, to make money.

 

Lots of money.

 

And Will must have stumbled over something on his one man crusade to take down the big bad developing company threatening to destroy the nature reserve east of town and build luxurious villas there, which was why he was now arrested on suspicion of a petty crime to keep him out of the way. Just brilliant.

 

This information left Arthur conflicted. He was the first to admit that the relationship that he had with his father wasn’t nowhere near as close as other father-son relationships were. Uther had never been his main caregiver, since Arthur’ mother had died giving birth to him he’d been left in the capable and professional, but somewhat cold, care of hired nannies and the other employees of the Pendragon Manor. During Arthur’s childhood Uther had been distant at best, wrapped up in work and travelling a lot, and stern and controlling at worst, insisting on keeping a close eye on his two children to make sure that they lived up to his expectations. Often Arthur felt as if he was merely tolerated in Uther’s presence, as long as he did right by his father, he was deemed worthy of the name Pendragon and therefore allowed to be associated with it. He never felt as if just being himself was enough to merit Uther’s acceptance but the thought of sending his own father to prison still felt wrong.

 

And was it even possible? From the look of it, all sorts of people were involved in this. Arthur recognized names of lawyers, police officers, judges, politicians and extremely wealthy and influential business men. Arthur was no fool and he knew that Uther wouldn’t shy away from obtaining what he wanted despite the fact that he would occasionally find himself on the wrong side of the law but this was something else. . It would take a lot of evidence to even get a court date, let alone win a trial.

 

To soothe his conflicted mind Arthur proceeded to do the only thing that he could think of. Get drunk. Really, really drunk. Fortunately Leon had seen him brooding during the last couple of days and managed to stop his friend before he’d downed his second beer and coaxed him to join him and Morgana for dinner instead. They ordered in copious amounts of sushi, ate until they were full to burst and then spent the rest of the night lazily watching bad TV series. Arthur had to admit that the evening indeed succeeded to take his mind of things just as well as the alcohol, and it didn’t come with a headache the next morning after either. He couldn’t help to feel a burst of gratefulness for having a friend like Leon in his life and curled up comfortably on the couch as Morgana brought in some ice cream for dessert. Arthur was actually happy that he’d allowed himself to be dragged home to them as he managed to forget about the whole sad business with Will and Merlin and not to mention that his father apparently was something of a mafia boss. Still, if Leon asked him about it, he’d deny it to the end of his days. Because Arthur’s a man and he can handle things on his own and he doesn’t need cheering up. But it’s very nice all the same.

 

All too sudden Arthur was back at the office and the thoughts started to swirl in his mind again. His father yelled at him for being distracted and threatened to have Morgana handle his cases if he didn’t shape up and Arthur had never been so close to calling the District Attorney and turn his father in. He had a shouting match with Morgana and another one with Gwaine. Merlin continued to avoid him like the plague, did as little work as he could without downright neglecting his job and seemed to spend whatever free time he had trying to help Will. The book bag on his shoulder got heavier by the day and the looks he threw Arthur more and more acidic. Arthur knew full well that it couldn’t continue like this for much longer but he didn’t know how to resolve the situation either. So he tried to ignore it.

 

It worked for almost a week. Then Merlin bumbled into his office one morning and Arthur didn’t bother to look up from the file he was reading since he knew that Merlin would at best glare at him as a morning greeting. Merlin, being Merlin, of course stumbled on the carpet in front of Arthur’s desk and he cursed loudly before he managed to right himself. Arthur huffed in annoyance as Merlin rattled the whole desk.

“Seriously, Merlin, that carpet has been there for as long as you’ve been working here. How can you still fall over it every damn time?” He expected a snarky retort from Merlin but all the paralegal did was to huff angrily and Arthur looked up in surprise. Merlin wouldn’t normally miss an opportunity to some verbal sparring, especially if Arthur initiated it. Then the sight of Merlin’s face made Arthur catch his breath.

“Wait!” Alarmed, he got to his feet. “What happened to you?” he demanded to know.

“Nothing” Merlin mumbled and all but fled from the room. Arthur looked at the closed door, took three deep breaths and then decided what to do.

“Leon!”


End file.
